But hey, everybody needs a break, including those of us in law school (or pursuit thereof) and the legal field. In fact, at the risk of sounding selfish, you and I may need a breather even more than your average professional or student. You already know how time-consuming and stressful preparing for the LSAT and law school admissions can be, but you may not have heard that attorneys sustain twice to three times the average rate of depression; unfortunately, the same goes for alcoholism and other substance abuse. Some experts posit that the same characteristics that can spell success for lawyers (aggression, perfectionism, and detached rationalism, for example) are socially and emotionally isolating, leading to depression and its potentially tragic consequences

So does this mean that attorneys, law school students, and wannabes should chuck the whole endeavor, move to Miami, and open up a tanning salon/ t-shirt shop? Well, who am I to tell you not to follow your heart? But if your heart lies with the law- its risks, rewards, and real potential to make a difference- there’s no need for alarm, just care… specifically, taking care of yourself! As draining as the legal field and law school can be, the answer isn’t to work/study/live and breathe the law until you drop. Many brilliant legal minds still fail to see the value in vacation, even if it’s just a getaway from the glare of the laptop. Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing like a libation-fueled limbo contest to get you feeling loose. But you can recharge your internal battery from your own zip code by enjoying activities that make you happy and human. Family, friends, foosball… take time for whatever makes your day a little sunnier (no SPF required).

Savvy students recognize the added value of relaxation: you’ll be at your best when you’re balanced, not overtaxed. You-time is not an indulgence but an investment in your productivity and positivity. In fact, the Kaplan method of LSAT preparation commands (well, actually, asks nicely) test takers to fit personal priorities into their study schedules and to refrain from studying at all for 24 hours before Test Day.  That time is for enjoying, feeling good: good about the work you’ve done and good about the accomplishments that lie ahead… just don’t miss your return flight!

Be selective in the information you send to the law school – only include information that was asked on the original application.  Always update contact information – especially if you are leaving a college address at the end of the semester.  You don’t want your decision letter being forwarded and taking an extra week to get to you!  In addition, if you retook the LSAT and did not list it on the application, be sure to let the school know that your new score will be arriving soon.

You should tell the schools about any new academic information including new transcripts, completed thesis, or summer classes for which you have signed up.  Your updated transcripts should be sent directly to LSAC who will then forward it to the schools: (http://www.lsac.org/JD/Apply/cas-requesting-transcripts.asp).

Updates from work and internships should include new responsibilities, major projects that you completed, publications, promotions, a new job title, or any unique new skill you may have acquired.  Obviously you should tell the schools about a new job or internship and consider including an updated resume.  I would not suggest sending an updated resume for just a new bullet point under a current position.

One other area of updating is volunteering and activities.  You only want to send substantial updates.  A long list of ‘new’ student organizations without any leadership roles will not be impressive and will be seen as a resume builder.  It is worth sending a quick email to the school for updates like a new leadership potion in your sorority, a volunteer tutoring position two days a week, or your organization recently sponsored a fundraiser that raised $2500.  In addition, if you have been given any awards or honors, you should include it in the update.

In general, updates are a way to tell the law schools something positive about you.  Unfortunately you also have an obligation to update the bad news including poor grades, disciplinary action and legal problems.  In this case, you do want to take the time to explain the situation in a little more detail than simply sending an email that reads “I was arrested for a DUI in February 2012.”

Updating your information to the law schools is your obligation but use it as an occasion to highlight your accomplishments.  Do not bombard them with weekly updates or you will become that annoying applicant who has the committee groaning every time they see your name.  Be positive and succinct.

Furthermore, formal logic is a skill that a student can use one time, and then simply discard after taking the LSAT.  In order to “think like a lawyer,” a term you are likely to hear too often during you 1L year, you must be able to effectively apply formal logic to various laws and facts.  So, this learning this skill for the LSAT is just the beginning of your formal logic training and education.  This is likely why this skill is so critical for LSAT success, because after all, the LSAT is advertised as testing the skills necessary to succeed in law school!

Here is an example of formal logic in a logical reasoning format that does not require a law degree to understand.

If I were to say  “all law school books are expensive books”, you would be correct in knowing that if you buy a law school book, it will be expensive.

However, we know nothing absolute about expensive books.  So, if you were to reply, “this book is expensive,” I could not be certain that the book you were speaking about is a law school book.  For all I know, it may be another, ancient collector book about art or the Roman Empire.

So, the all preceding “law school books” is sufficient to establish that the book is an “expensive book.”  The key is to not focus on the statement, because who cares whether or not you agree with what the author wrote, but rather to focus on the logic underlying the statement.  If you can remain disconnected and seek out the formal logic, you will not be led astray.

Pencils:  Mechanical pencils are not allowed to be used on LSAT test day.  Do not practice with mechanical pencils.  Starting with your first day of LSAT practice, you should use wooden #2 pencils.  Not all wooden #2 pencils are created equal however.  My personal pencil of choice for the LSAT is Ticonderoga Black.  I like the way the Ticonderoga pencils write and I love their erasers.  You do not have to use Ticonderoga pencils, but you must be fully in love with some type of pencil by test day.  Test out different pencils until you find the pencil brand you love.  Then use it for all your LSAT practice.

Highlighter(s):  Highlighters are allowed to be used in your test booklet on test day.  During your LSAT practice, develop a style of using a highlighter when and where it helps you most.  You can use different color highlighters to signal different arguments on Reading Comprehension passages or to mark a word or sentence in a Logical Reasoning stimulus.  Practice with highlighters so the method that works for you is second nature by test day.  There is no right or wrong approach to highlighting – find the approach that works for you and use it consistently during practice.

Pencil Sharpener(s):  Obviously, you cannot bring battery operated or electric pencil sharpeners into the LSAT, although many students have tried.  There will not be pencil sharpeners provided by the testing site either.  Buy a few small, plastic pencil sharpeners, preferably with an attachment to catch shavings.  I would encourage you to bring enough sharpened pencils so you don’t have to sharpen pencils except during the break.  The most common technique used for pencil sharpeners is to place them in a small sandwich sized ziplock bag.  Sharpen your pencil with the sharpener in the bag so you don’t have debris all over your desktop.  Also, you might want to bring a back-up pencil sharpener in case the first one gets clogged.

Big Eraser:  Although you do have an eraser at the end of your pencil, there are times when a large, pink eraser comes in handy – like if you grid an entire section incorrectly and have to erase it and start from scratch.  Or you realize your Logic Game set-up was completely wrong and you have to re-sketch it.  Have a big eraser just in case.  Be sure to find an eraser that does not smudge or tear up the page.  Search high and low until you find an eraser that leaves the page clean and clear.

Analog Wristwatch:  Practice timed sections using an analog wristwatch placed in front of you on the desk.  I suggest resetting the watch to 11:25 at the beginning of each timed 35 minute section.  This makes it much easier to visually assess how much time is left until the end of the section when the watch reaches 12:00.  As each successive section begins, reset the watch again to 11:25.  Trust me – this is much easier than leaving your watch on the actual time and trying to track 35 minutes in your head.  Every time you practice, place the watch in front of you.  Get used to this method of tracking time so on test day you are a well oiled, LSAT machine.

Pencils and erasers might seem like inconsequential pieces of your LSAT preparation, but getting your routine and comfort level worked out during these months of practice will pay off on test day.  Now go to your nearest office supply store and start speed dating different pencils until you find the pencil that steals your heart.

Its mid to late September, you have heard other people mention terms like Hornbook or Treatise.  However, the people you likely hear talking about them are other 1L’s that have a brother, or cousin that has gone to law school and finished in the top 5% of their class.

So you start to wonder is there any validity to this.

You see, you are a in your first year of law school, glad you got in, but somewhat confused as to what it means to “Think Like a Lawyer”, and are starting to hear horror stories about how “different” law school exams are compared to other test in different professional schools, or undergraduate programs.

The problem is, part of what you hear is correct.  So, the question is, now what?

You may be asking yourself:

Do I purchase an Examples & Explanations supplement for every class?  Do I purchase a bar review supplement for each class?  Maybe I should get supplement X over supplement Y.

These are all questions that many 1L’s consider about midway through their first semester.  The answer is…. It depends.  You see, there is no substitute for hard work.  Hard work in law school is learning how to read the cases.  You learn by breaking down the cases and seeing what is important compared to what is not.  There is just now substitute for this.  You must remember one key factor when preparing to take law school finals.  You are not taking Contracts, you are taking Contracts from Professor A.  You are not taking Torts, you are taking Torts from Professor B.

The point is, that supplements, with outlines included in them, can give you the “black-letter” law, but they don’t always help you develop the skills necessary to apply the law to differing fact patterns.  And that is what the tests will do.  I will expand on his principle in another blog title Got In, Now What?.

Supplements can be beneficial for small things, but they are supplements, not substitutes.  That is the trap many people fall in.  Students begin using the supplements as substitutes to the class because they are more direct, and require less time and sacrifice.  They take out the hard work.  This will do very little for you when it comes to the law exam essay tests.  What they will do, is help you further grasp concepts that can be difficult to articulate, or are difficult for you to understand.

So, if you use the supplements as supplements, then it can be useful.  However, it is a fine-line to walk, and you should remain disciplined if you choose to walk it.  If you being using supplements as substitutes, you will likely be worse-off for it.

If either of these people sounds like you, it’s important that you take a step back and recognize that basing the decision to attend a school solely, and oftentimes, even primarily on its rankings – including the US News rankings – can be hazardous to your educational and career well-being.  There are many ways in which focusing too heavily on the rankings can come back to haunt you.  I could write a book about it, but on second thought, let me just give you a few of the reasons why you should avoid catching a contagious virus that strikes a number of law school applicants each year – something which I like to call, rankings tunnel vision.

Think Location, Location, Location!

Did you know that the vast majority of law schools in the U.S. have a greater number of connections, as well as more clout with employers that are in their immediate locale or region than they do with employers in a distant geographic region?  For instance, it’s not at all unusual for a law school in New York to have much more clout than a law school in California does with employers in the New York area.  That’s not to say that you can’t attend law school in California and get a good job in New York, Florida or Texas, for that matter.  Of course you can!  Just as importantly, most law schools can be helpful with your search for a job in another part of the country.  But, it’s important for you to keep in mind that the extent of your law school’s pull with employers in a particular region or locale can greatly affect the number and quality of your future employment options.  Therefore, if you already know that one of your targeted, but lower ranked schools is in the geographic area where you wish to practice law, while your higher ranked schools are far from your targeted area, that can be an important reason to give the lesser rated school a closer look.

Think About the Pressures of Money!

Now … with all the resources available on the Internet, I know you already have a general idea that paying for law school probably isn’t going to be easy.  But I truly hope that you realize just how challenging paying for law school can be for some graduates.  Paying down the debt on your law school education can be so burdensome that some newly minted attorneys will struggle financially for many years after receiving the JD.  Other recent law school graduates may end up taking jobs that they dislike, but need to stick with for a very substantial period of time, just to pay the bills.  True, there are large numbers of graduates who like or even LOVE the jobs they take after law school.  But, there have also been a fair number of law school graduates over the years who have hated the initial jobs they took to help pay back their loans – particularly because doing so delayed or pushed them off of a career track that would have been much more satisfying.  Keep in mind that the true monetary cost of attending a given law school is not well reflected in most law school rankings.  This is yet another reason why it’s important to consider factors beyond the rankings.

 Don’t Turn General Estimates into the Holy Gospel!

Even as you seek out other sources of information, it’s important that you understand that the rankings themselves do not represent a metaphysical truth.  No rankings scale accounts for the full range of qualities that a law school can have.  Just as importantly, there are many different ways of calculating a school’s “quality.”  Therefore, at best, numerical ratings should be taken as general estimates, which can change simply by the shift of a single factor, such as an increase in the LSAT scores of admitted students.   As a result, it is not only possible, but entirely likely that a school ranked at #12 is – for some students – really just as good, or in fact, even better than a school ranked at #8.  Also, keep in mind that schools can and do move up and down the various rankings scales from year to year.  If school #8 and #12 reverse positions in the course of a year, does it mean that the new #8 school has really become the better program?  A healthy dose of skepticism would serve you well before you answer such a question.

Take a Test Drive!

We can look at rankings and other data on law schools all year long, but the bottom line is that long before starting your first semester of law school, one of the best ways to determine whether a school truly fits your needs is by visiting it, sitting in on classes, and talking to current students.  I have to admit that, as an admissions consultant, I’ve successfully advised quite a substantial number of applicants who ended up at the top law schools in the U.S.  And, let me tell you, I’m always excited when they get in.  So, I’ve got nothing at all against applying and going to a highly ranked law school.  However, there are still too many applicants out there who are willing to blindly accept a law school seat on the basis of a high ranking, only to later realize that they have chosen the wrong institution.  So, take your schools for a test drive and consider a range of factors when thinking about which program is best for you.  You could be surprised at how much you connect with a program, regardless of its ranking.

Whatever you do and wherever you end up, just don’t be that guy or gal who lives by the law school rankings alone.

Once you are on campus, you want to be sure to check out a number of places, keeping in mind what is important to you.  What does this mean?  Are you moving to a new area and will need to create a new social network?  Are you already involved in the community and just want a degree?  Are you relocating with a family?  Your circumstances determine what is important to you and what you should be looking for in a school.

Before your trip, arrange with admissions to sit in on a class or two.  Is it a lecture or interactive style of teaching?  Are students engaged in the discussion?  Observe the students, watch for interactions with the faculty.

Hang out in the library.  I am less concerned with the collection of books and internet materials and more concerned with whether it is a place where you could study.  Are there students utilizing it?  If you want to meet people, you want a campus where students stay for the day versus just attending class and heading home.

Talk to students and faculty.  Ask student what they like about the school, why they ultimately chose it, and about the general atmosphere.  Ask faculty about their teaching style, do they work with students outside of the classroom, and if there is support for you particular areas of interest.

Visit the career center.  Do they have internships and job opportunities in both the location and field that you are considering?  Do they have an active alumni network?  Do they offer career development workshops?

While you are at the law school, be sure to explore the surrounding community to determine if it is the right place for you and check out the housing options if you will need them.

Remember that not only are you deciding on a law school, you are choosing the place where you are going to live for at least the next three years of your life.  Use the campus visit to decide which school meets the most of your needs.

Quite often a test taker believes the best strategy is to rush through the LSAT at warp speed to make sure he or she gets to everything.  While getting to all of the questions is a definite plus, going too fast can actually backfire.  Reading at a rate faster than what we are comfortable with often leads to just “skimming” the material, which can be very dangerous on the LSAT.  Two common repercussions of skimming are: (A) having to reread because you didn’t comprehend what you just read or (B) missing a little word that drastically changes the meaning of the material (you’d be amazed how important little words like “might” or “not” are on the LSAT).  If you are forced to go back and reread then you actually end up spending more time on something than if you’d just slowed down a little bit to begin with.  If you miss a word that changes the meaning of the material (like a “might” or a “not”) then the question or questions pertaining to it are most likely already chalked up as incorrect.  Not much point in getting to all of the questions if we aren’t giving ourselves an opportunity to get them right.

Now let’s consider the benefits of slowing down.  First off, we have less rereading (hopefully none).  If the material is tough, then take your time with it.  Reading a sentence slow once will always give you a greater understanding than reading it real fast two or three times.  Second, and maybe most importantly, you decrease the chance to make careless errors.  A LOT of missed questions on the LSAT are due to misreading.  The LSAT is tough enough without missing the easier questions over something that could have been avoided.  Third, reading at a comfortable pace instead of a mad dash will help you calm down a bit and decrease some of the stress.  Too much stress can exacerbate the hazards we have already discussed and can definitely make for an unpleasant testing experience.  The last factor isn’t based on reading speed, but instead on methodology.  When we go too fast we tend to try to do more in our heads instead of using the space in the testing book for scratch work.  This too can lead to careless mistakes and will, in all likelihood, end up taking up more time in the long run.  There is no shame in jotting down info in the margins, and the highest scorers consistently utilize that space.  There are several techniques to make the most of our scratch room inside the booklet, but that is a topic for next time.

The concept we so painfully learned that day was that the Oklahoma Appellate Court dismissed the case because the prosecutor failed to charge Mr. Proctor with an “overt act” in connection with the alleged culpable intent.  Simply stated, he had not done anything yet.  An “overt act” was necessary.  Courts describe the requirement of an act as a fundamental necessity of criminal punishment in a civilized state.  We do not want to have a society where people are punished merely for their thoughts.  If we had a criminal justice system which did not require “overt acts” to accompany evil intent, then anyone who is angry, perhaps over a lost parking space, would need to be brought to justice.

Every crime has the requirement of an act.  That seemed straight forward enough.  But, then, with the next case, the Professor’s questions began again:  “What is an act?  What if you hit someone, giving them a broken nose, while your having a convulsion?  What if you act in your sleep, perhaps murdering someone?  What if you act under hypnosis?  What are the necessary elements of an “act”?  What is sufficient (enough) to prove an act?”  Needless to say, it was a long day in Criminal Law class.  The lesson was meant to teach us that every law is based on necessary elements which must be sufficiently proven to constitute a crime.

When a judge or jury decides a legal matter, they have to decide if there was sufficient (enough) evidence of each of the necessary elements of the crime.  Beyond that, the concept of proving each element of the crime “beyond a reasonable doubt” is about having a sufficient amount of proof.  What was necessary (needed) to be proven and was the evidence sufficient (enough) to prove each necessary element?  Sufficiency and necessity are at the heart of our justice system.  The facts of each case may differ, but the structure of necessity and sufficiency permeate every aspect of the law.  That, my friends, is why necessity and sufficiency are so vigorously tested on the LSAT.  If you understand these two concepts, you are well on your way to being a lawyer.

Here are a few tips that I can endorse, by trial and error.  The specifics to how you get through your 1L year, and the remainder of law school, change for each person, but the general destination is the same for all persons.

These are numbered based on what I would have liked to known, and what I feel would be most important to me now looking at it retrospectively.

4.  Managing Stress – law school brings in people from all walks of life.  You will have people who used to work at NASA, or former medical doctors that want to try a career switch.  There will be people who have worked in the professional world that just want a career change.  And of course, there are the people who go straight through from undergrad.  Other people’s accomplishments are impressive, but arguably have little to no correlation to how well they will do in law school, with one exception, hard work.  That is a characteristic that all people will need, regardless of IQ or LSAT scores.  But remember, law school is three years, so try to manage your stress evenly and don’t overdue it early.  That is a sure way to burn yourself out and underperform.  Don’t worry about how “great” all of the people in your 1L class, or section are.  Remember, you are among them, so the admission committee saw something in you that thought would succeed.

3.  OPM (Other People’s Methods) – do not fixate on what other people do to prep for class, or study or how they outline.  All this really does is waste time that you could be using productively.  Plus, it adds undue stress onto how you feel, and makes you question what you are doing.  Remember, do what works for you.  Find study groups that are small enough (prob 4-8 people) to be effective and stick with them.

2.  Preparation for the Final – the final is the only grade you will receive all year, and the classes comprise (in most schools) zero percent of you final grade.  Maybe in some schools, you will get participation grade “bumps”, but they are likely negligible.  So use your time preparing for finals, not for individual classes.  The facts and holdings of the cases are of little to no importance.  The cases are given for the law embedded in them, and how that principle was applied.  That is what you should be focusing on for the final.  The rest of the information is primarily just filler to talk about in case you get called on.  Being able to identify the law and how it is applied are the key to repeating that skill on the final.

1.  Doing Practice Tests – the best way to learn a skill is to practice the skill.  Law school is different that most, if not all, other professional skills in that it teaches, and tests, a skill.  Knowledge is a distant, distant second.  Legislatures and politics change, thus statutes and laws change.  Common law follows precedent, but it sometimes goes off course and creates new precedent based on the age that the law is decided under.  The point is, that law in not a memorization game.  It is true that you must know the current state of the law in the class in which you are preparing for, but the key that the professors are testing is your application of the law the to “made up” facts that are given.  The conclusion does not matter.  I would say it is sometimes best to make you conclusion on most law school exams, Maybe.  Because that will force you to see the other side of the argument.  You will learn this by taking practice exams.